If you could be a neurotypical would you?

Post Reply New Topic

I got into a deep discusion with a good friend of mine who asked a question that I honesty had no answer to. "Suppose for a minute God came to you and said 'i've seen your struggles and frankly i've decided to make you a neurotypical if you wish' would you?" (I and by buddy tend to pick each others brains a lot with questions like this since way back junior high.) He asked because hie wife is a diabetic and they can't have kids of their own and she'd do anything to be normal. Hes one of the few people i've let in and he's been aware of the bad cards I keep getting delt when it comes to personal relationships and he really wonders if I would.

I didn't have and answer for him because honestly I don't know. I've never been a neurotypical and I have to admit i'm curious to see what is like. I also wonder if the girl I was seeing last year would have not left me because we'd be closer, i'd also like to see if i'd be close to my family. Of course I don't know if i'd be me anymore or if things would really have turned out differently. Anyway it makes for an interesting (and purely hypothetical) question I thought i'd throw out there.

I'd like to be able to move between skill sets.

Yes. I don't see any nobility in having to struggle if the option were to not have to.

I don't have a diagnosis, but I'm certainly not entirely normal. I wouldn't want to suddenly be entirely different. If my personality changed and I suddenly didn't have the love of my interests that I have, I fear I would become overly bored. I don't want to have to be dependent on constant social connections and the mundane universal interests and concerns of everyone else. However, I do crave positive social interactions with people who I can relate to and/or share my interests. If I felt more confident and outgoing in finding and meeting those people, I would be as "cured" as I would like to be. However, I still believe I can be given that strength. I struggle, and I need to know more about myself, other people, and strategies from others like me. But I don't believe that I would have to completely change myself in order to better myself in the areas that I want to improve in.

Fack no!

No, actually. Even with my ADHD,d if that's even what I really have, I feel like the benefits outweigh the negative aspects. I can be a complete space case sometimes but I like they way I think, for the most part.

I'm not going to say it's better to be neurodiverse than NT. I don't think that's the case for everyone. I'm lucky to get by as easily as I do.

Last edited by MotownDangerPants on 28 Jul 2010, 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NO not really i'm unique Monique and I love it.

Yeah, that's kind of where I am. I like to keep my interests and add some to my repertoire of social skills (keeping in mind that even for quote-unquote 'normal' people, social skills are inherently, INHERENTLY imperfect. <--and that also makes life more interesting!)

These are always fascinating. Mostly people are worried about losing their interests.

My question; if you became NT, why would you lose your interest? Is that part of the diagnosis?

This is just the 'cure' debate in a different frame.

You are who you are because you were born with a different lens through which you experience the world. As you grow and develop, EVERYTHING you see, touch, think, hear or experience in any way is filtered through that slightly warped lens, which all contributes to creating your personality.

You don't HAVE Asperger Syndrome - you ARE a creation made of Asperger Syndrome.

If the neural pathways that have formed your perceptions of the world were to suddenly disappear, you wouldn't be normal, you'd be LOST. If you think you live on a different planet NOW, after learning to navigate here for years with faulty radar, you'd suddenly find yourself with no radar at all, because even socially confident neurotypicals aren't born socially confident and don't become that way overnight.

Its just a moot question. A 'cure' wouldn't be a 'cure', it would ultimately be a solution worse than the problem.

I can, however, easily imagine the God of this world doing such a thing - he thrives on suffering.

Not an chance on earth, would I do that. I'm used to being set in my own ways, and I would not want my brain to be tampered with, just so that I satisfy the needs and wishes of my parents, and my past bullies.

No way!

No, my diagnosis is part of who I am and I don't want to change that.

I don't know. I've had a lot of problems with anxiety and depression and if being a neurotypical would solve those I'd have to consider it.

Just because neurotypicals don't have the deficits of ASD or ADHD, it doesn't mean that they are exempt from the pain that we experience in our lives. I'd rather just be me and a big part of me is my aspergers. So, no, I'd rather not change.

I agree with what Willard said--the question can't really be answered because I could not in any possible way be neurotypical; if my brain was replaced with a neurotypical brain I wouldn't consider the person that brain controls the same person that I was before.